When one person accidentally injures another person, they may be eligible to recover compensation for the financial and personal losses they incur, including medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering. If a jury in a personal injury case finds that a defendant’s conduct was egregious, the jury may also award punitive (or exemplary) damages to the accident victim.
Unlike other damages, a punitive damages claim in Georgia personal injury cases does not seek compensation for an injured victim’s losses. Instead, the damages punish the defendant for their behavior or deter the defendant and others from engaging in similar conduct. As a civil claim, it remains separate from any criminal prosecution of the party.
What Are Punitive Damages?
Punitive damages represent a special category of compensation that a jury considering a personal injury lawsuit may award to a plaintiff under limited circumstances. Georgia law allows juries to award punitive damages in personal injury cases when a plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant’s actions demonstrated willful misconduct, malice, fraud, or wanton behavior representing a conscious indifference to the consequences of one’s actions or the safety and welfare of others.
How Are Punitive Damages Different Than Compensatory Damages?
Punitive damages in Georgia personal injury cases differ from compensatory damages. As the name suggests, compensatory damages compensate an injury victim for financial and personal losses arising from their injuries, such as medical expenses, lost income/earning capacity, physical pain, emotional distress, and lost quality of life. Compensatory damages seek to make a defendant whole and place them in as close to an identical position as they enjoyed before getting hurt in an accident caused by another party’s actions.
Conversely, a punitive damages claim does not compensate a personal injury plaintiff for losses. Instead, punitive damages may be awarded in a civil case solely to punish the defendant for egregious conduct that shocks the conscience and to deter the defendant and others from repeating such conduct.
So, a jury calculates compensatory damages based on an accident victim’s losses. However, the jury determines punitive damages based on what will adequately serve the punishment and deterrence roles.
What Are the Requirements for Proving Punitive Damages?
In Georgia, a plaintiff who wishes to receive an award of punitive damages must specifically request such an award in their complaint. A plaintiff in a civil case bears the burden of proving their entitlement to punitive damages by clear and convincing evidence. This standard of proof is more demanding than the preponderance of the evidence standard typically used in personal injury cases. The clear and convincing evidence standard requires a plaintiff to present substantial evidence demonstrating grounds for a punitive damages award.
For a jury to award punitive damages in a personal injury case in Georgia, the jury’s verdict form must specifically find that the evidence produced at trial meets the standard necessary for punitive damages. Once the jury finds that the plaintiff should receive an award of punitive damages, the court will receive additional evidence, if required, for the jury to determine the award of damages that will sufficiently punish defendants or deter them from misconduct.
What Are the Different Types of Cases That Could Include Punitive Damages?
Most types of personal injury can support an award of punitive damages. It depends on whether the defendant acts with the required willful misconduct, malice, fraud, or wantonness to support the punitive damages award. Examples of cases that may include punitive damages in Georgia personal injury cases are:
- Motor vehicle accidents — A jury in a civil case may impose punitive damages on a substantially impaired driver or a driver who caused an accident after willfully or knowingly engaging in reckless or intoxicated driving.
- Product liability accidents — A manufacturer or retailer may face an award of punitive damages when it knows that its product had a dangerous design or manufacturing defect but continues to market or sell the defective product.
- Premises liability accidents — A property owner may face liability for punitive damages in a premises liability lawsuit.
- Medical malpractice — A medical provider may face punitive damages if they consciously disregarded a substantial risk that their treatment decisions or actions would cause significant harm to the patient.
- Sexual abuse — A jury may find that a defendant who committed sexual abuse engaged in willful misconduct or malice.
- Assault/homicide — A personal injury or wrongful death case arising from an assault, homicide, or other crime may result in a punitive damages award against a defendant if the jury finds the defendant acted with willful intent to harm, malice, or conscious indifference to the consequences of their actions.
Does Georgia Have Caps on Punitive Damage Awards?
Under Ga. Code § 51-12-5.1, or Georgia’s punitive damages statute, a court must impose a cap on punitive damages in some instances.
Product liability actions have no cap on punitive damages. However, the law makes a defendant liable for only one punitive damages award in Georgia for any act or omission giving rise to product liability cases, regardless of the number of actions that may arise from such act or omission. Also, 75 percent of any punitive damages awarded in a product liability action must go to the Office of the State Treasurer.
In personal injury cases not involving product liability, the law does not place a cap on punitive damages claims if the jury finds that the defendant acted or failed to act with the specific intent to harm or acted or failed to act while impaired by alcohol, illegal drugs, or toxic vapors. Otherwise, the law caps awards of punitive damages at $250,000.
Contact a Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer
Have you been the victim of someone else’s egregious conduct? If so, contact Bayuk Pratt today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a knowledgeable Georgia personal injury attorney to learn more about punitive damages and whether the facts of your case might support a jury award that includes them. We are a small practice with a significant advantage: two of the sharpest attorneys with the insider experience needed to win cases. Call or reach us online today to learn more.
